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If you have any question, please drop me an email (sonia9423@gmail.com) or Instagram @ sonianll

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Korean Buttercream Flowers Cake 韩式奶油裱花蛋糕

I also followed the latest trend to make a popular Korean buttercream flowers cake for my elder sister's 50th Birthday. I didn't attend any buttercream flower class but instead i learnt by myself through many videos shared in Youtube.
What is Korean buttercream flowers? according to this Chinese website, Korean
buttercream flowers are derived from the basic Wilton buttercream flower and re-created by
Korean housewives. As most of them have no time to take the time consuming Wilton
buttercream courses, hence they just used the basic buttercream flowers technique
and improved the colour variations and made changes on the nozzles, and created their own version of buttercream flowers.

This cake topper was DIY by my daughter

For the buttercream used, Korean bakers are using Italian meringue buttercream (IMBC). But i still prefer to use Swiss Meringue buttercream (SMBC) which is stable (even IMBC is stable too) in our hot weather here (example Barbie doll cake that i made last time) and it is easy to make if compare to Italian meringue method. Also the egg white is cooked using Swiss meringue method, so it is safe to consume. Anyway, some said using IMBC is more stable compare to SMBC, next round i should give a try using IMBC.

And i have came out with a SMBC recipe that work well every time i made, step by step recipe is in my old post here. The rule of thumb is you have to beat the buttercream till curdled (many people tried to avoid this buttercream turned curdled but Not me) and beat over icy water (ice cubes and water).

As for the butter, I find the butter that i used was quite yellowish, next time will try to use lighter colour of butter example French butter. As I know, the Korean bakers are using white butter which we can't find this type of butter here , not sure the butter they used is similar to shortening or not.

Since i used the real butter to make the buttercream, so it was quite hard to achieve nicer colour tone since the base colour is yellowish. I refuse to use shortening (tasted like plastic !!) which look white , and it is easy to get nicer colour and very stable in our hot weather here.

See the cross section of this cake, photo taken using phone

If you are interested to make one, please read my recipe below as i shared few tips in this recipe. As of how to pipe the flowers, please check in youtube as there are many videos to show you how to pipe the flowers. Also hop over my Instagram account (sonianll) to view quick video.

Korean Buttercream
Flowers Cake 韩式奶油裱花蛋糕

*makes a 8”
round cake

For Devil’s Food Chocolate Cake

50g
unsweetened cocoa powder

60g
semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

1/2cup
(120g) hot boiling water

1/2cup
(120g) buttermilk

150g cake
flour

3/4tsp
baking soda

¼ +1/8 tsp
fine salt

120g brown
sugar

80g caster
sugar

100g
vegetable oil ( I use sunflower seed oil)

2 large or A
size eggs

1tsp vanilla
extract

Method

1. In a mixing bowl, combine cocoa powder,
chopped semi-sweet chocolate, pour boiling water over it and whisk till smooth.

5. Pour batter in the prepared cake tin
lined with paper. Tap the tin to remove any air bubbles.

6. Bake at preheated oven at 1705 for 50mins
or until a skewer insert and come out clean.

7. Cool on wire rack before slice for
frosting.

For Mascarpone Frosting

250g
Mascarpone cheese, room temp

200ml UHT Whipping
cream

1tbsp caster
sugar

Method

Beat whipping cream and sugar over a large bowl that
filled with ice cubes and water, till stiff peaks formed.

In another bowl, use the same mixer, whisk the mascarpone
till loosen, not over beat.

Gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until
completely incorporated. Keep in the fridge at all time before use.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream (Basic of 1 quantity)

100g egg
white (3 large eggs)

135g coarse sugar

227g unsalted
butter

Method

1. Remove
butter from fridge and cut into small cubes, set aside. Lightly whisk egg
whites in a mixing bowl, place over a pot of simmering water (double boiler).

2. Add in
sugar, whisk sugar and egg whites till sugar is fully dissolved (rub some with
your fingers, if it feels grainy, it hasn't dissolved yet), take about 2-3mins.

3. Remove
from heat and whisk for about 5mins till peaks are stiff, thick and glossy
(Hand mixer speed at 3).

4. At this
point, the mixing bowl should be cool to the touch but still slight warm at the
bottom.

5. Place the
bowl of meringue on top of a large bowl with fill with ice cubes and water.

6. With the
mixer at low, add in the butter cube one by one, ensuring that each addition is
well incorporated before adding the next one.

7. Beat till
mixture become curdles, stop the mixer, take a spatula, continue to fold and
stir till the mixture become creamy and satiny. (Even the mixture not totally
smooth also ok, because when you add colouring, you need to stir and this time
it will turn smooth).

8. Best to
use gel paste and oil base of food colouring. Always tint colours from lighter
to darker.

9. To make buttercream flowers. I used
total 3 quantity of above basic buttercream recipe to make the flowers (it can be used
less if you have master your piping skill). Fill buttercream into piping bag
that fitted with piping tip. Place a dab of buttercream on a piping nail and
place a square of parchment paper on top. Then you can start to pipe the
buttercream flowers. If you find the buttercream started to melt especially at
the area where you hold the piping bag (it melt because the heat from the palm
of your hand) , pour back the melted cream into balance buttercream and keep
them in the fridge to harden a bit. Bring them out and stir till smooth then
you can start to use it again. Or you place the buttercream over a big bowl
filled with ice cubes and water. Once it harden a bit, stir to smooth then you
can start to use it again.

Keep
buttercream flowers in the fridge overnight (or can be done few days in
advance) to harden before decorate on the cake.

Here are the
piping tips that I used:-

For rose-
tip no 104 or tip 122

For
Chrysanthemum – tip no 79

For small
five petals flower- tip no 104

For leaf –
tip no 352

For small
dot – tip no 4

10.To assemble and frost the cake. Divide each
chocolate cake and coconut buttermilk cake into 2 pieces. Place one piece
chocolate cake at a cake board, frost with Mascarpone cream, then top with one
piece of coconut buttermilk cake, repeat the rest. Then apply “crumb coat”
using plain Swiss meringue buttercream- a thin layer of frosting on the whole
cake, chill in the fridge for one hour to harden the cream. Remove cake from
fridge, then frost the whole cake. Keep in the fridge to harden before start to
put buttercream flower on top.

11.To assemble buttercream flowers on the
frosted cake. Fill Swiss meringue buttercream in a piping bag, sniff off about
½” hole from the tip, then pipe the buttercream to form a circle surround the edge
of the cake, then pipe another circle inside and one more circle on top of
these two circles. Remove chilled buttercream flowers from the fridge, start
from bigger flowers, tear off the parchment paper, and start to arrange and
place on the circle buttercream. You have to work very fast, as the butter will
turn soft very fast in our hot weather here. Once complete the big flowers,
then arrange small flowers on top, and pipe some leaf shape of buttercream to
fill the empty gap in between the buttercream flowers. Once you finish decorated
with buttercream flowers, store the cake in the fridge before consumed.

Buttercream
used for step 10 and 11, I used 1 ½ of above basic buttercream.

25 comments:

Sonia , I finally tried making buttercream roses last night :D I used Sweepolita Swiss meringue buttercream recipe and tastes really wonderful and quiet easy to make ! Will have to try yours on my second round :D

Sonia, you are amazing! I attended the class but still can't get it right. Thanks for your tips regarding the ice cubes and water. By the way, may I know the brand of the butter that you used? I used Anchor and SCS but they melt too fast for me. Thanks.

Hi Sonia! Tried your swiss meringue twice and both times were successful! However, they turn really soft after a few minutes. Do you work and store finished cake in an air conditioned room? Or could it be beacause Im only using a hand mixer? It's so yummy that I refuse to give up...will try again :)

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